What's in the box?:
- ASUS BC-1205PT Blu-ray Combo Drive
- CyberLink BD Solution
- Quick Installation Guide
- Mounting Screws
Physical Features:
The drive ASUS sent us for this review was manufactured in August of 2007 and had firmware version 1.03. At the time of this review, this is the only firmware available for the BC-1205PT.
Like many of ASUS's drives, the BC-1205PT is based on a Pioneer design. In this case, it's Pioneer's new Blu-ray combo drive, the BDC-202. While the two drives are very similar, ASUS has tried to make theirs stand out a bit more by giving it a custom bezel. As you can see, the BC-1205PT also has its share of logos. Along with the large "ASUS" and "Blu-ray Disc" logos, you can see a few showing off its support for Ultra Speed CD-RW media and theDVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications.
Below the tray you can see the BC-1205PT's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up green whenever the drive is reading or writing.
The rear of the BC-1205PT is pretty straightforward. By looking at the picture above you can see the drive's SATA interface and power connector.
Technical Specs:
The specs below have been taken from ASUS's websiteand the box that the drive came in.
| ASUS BC-1205PT Blu-ray Combo | |
| DVD+R Write Speeds | 12x, 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD+RW Write Speeds | 6x, 4x, 3.3x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R Write Speeds | 12x, 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 2x, 1x (CLV) |
| DVD-RW Write Speeds | 6x, 4x, 2x, 1x (CLV) |
| DVD+R DL Write Speeds | 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R DL Write Speeds | 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD-RAM Write Speeds | 5x, 3x, 2x (CLV) |
| CD Write Speeds | 24x (Z-CLV) 16x, 10x, 4x (CLV) |
| CD Rewrite Speeds | 24x (Z-CLV) 16x, 10x, 4x (CLV) |
| BD Read Speeds | 5x Max (BD-ROM) 5x Max (BD-R) 5x Max (BD-RE) 2x Max (BD-R DL) |
| DVD Read Speeds | 12x Max (DVD-ROM Single Layer) 8x Max (DVD-ROM Dual Layer) 12x Max (DVD±R) 8x Max (DVD±RW) 8x Max (DVD±R DL) 5x Max (DVD-Video) 5x Max (DVD-RAM) |
| CD Read Speeds | 32x Max (CD-ROM/CD-R) 24x Max (CD-RW) |
| DAE Speeds | 32x Max |
| Buffer Size | 4 MB |
| Access Times |
250 ms (BD-ROM) 150 ms (DVD-ROM) 150 ms (CD) |
| CD Formats | CD-DA CD-ROM Video CD Photo CD CD-Extra CD-Text CD-R CD-RW |
| DVD Formats | DVD-ROM DVD-Video DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW DVD+R DL DVD-R DL |
| BD Formats | BD-ROM BD-R/RE BD-R/REDL |
| DVD Recording Modes | Disc At Once Incremental Recording Restricted Overwriting Sequential Recording Random Recording |
| CD Recording Modes | Disc At Once Session At Once Track At Once Packet Writing |
More Features:
By looking at the picture below, you can see that ASUS's new Blu-ray combo drive is identified as an "ASUS BC-1205PT."
The Nero screenshot also shows that the BC-1205PT has a maximum CD writing speed of 40x and a 1600KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by ASUS's FlextraLink technology. According to Nero, the BC-1205PT can write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity I found that the drive was able to overburn up to 94:27with CompUSA's 99 minute CD-R media.
Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the BC-1205PT is a "two sheep" burner. This means that ASUS's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.
Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the BC-1205PT's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 1600KB buffer.
InfoTool also shows that the BC-1205PT is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available for this drive.
While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the BC-1205PT's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that ASUS's new drive can read and write to most DVD formats and read back BD-R, BD-RE and BD-ROM discs.
The BC-1205PT doesn't let you set the book type of single layer DVD+R or DVD+RW media. However, the drive automatically sets the book type for DVD+R DL discs to "DVD-ROM". This greatly reduces compatibility problems, especially with older DVD players.
